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Critter Notices

Critters is 23!

Yes, 23 years ago Critters was born. Wow! Thanks so much
to all of you, who've made it such a resounding success!

Critters no longer accepting European Union members :(

It's with a heavy heart that I have to announce Critters can no longer accept people in the European Union as members. This is a result of the "GDPR" privacy laws going into effect.
I'm a big fan of privacy, and applaud the general idea behind the GDPR, but the way it's implemented forces me to close the door to EU writers. [read more why...]

Books from Critters!

Check out Books by Critters for books by your fellow
Critterfolk, as well as my list of recommended books for writers.

The Sigil Trilogy

If you're looking for an amazing, WOW! science fiction story, check out
THE SIGIL TRILOGY.
This is — literally — one of the best science fiction novels I've ever read.

P&E Has a New Caretaker!

I'm very happy to announce that P&E has been handed off to a new caretaker! Check out the site for news and such. Hurrah!

Interviewed!

I'm being interviewed live on public radio for Critters 20th
birthday. For those who want to listen, it's on the 10am (Mountain time)
show on Thursday, 11/19/16, on Colorado Public Radio - www.cpr.org has
streaming on the site or it's 90.1 FM in the Denver area. [Interview is done,
you can listen on the site]

Free Web Sites

ReAnimus Acquires Advent!

ReAnimus Press is pleased to announce the acquisition of the legendary Advent
Publishers! Advent is now a subsidiary of ReAnimus Press, and we will
continue to publish Advent's titles under the Advent name. Advent was
founded in 1956 by Earl Kemp and others, and has published the likes
of James Blish, Hal Clement, Robert Heinlein, Damon Knight, E.E. "Doc"
Smith, and many others. Advent's high quality titles have won and been
finalists for several Hugo Awards, such as The Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction and Fantasy and Heinlein's Children. Watch this space for ebook
and print editions of all of Advent's current titles!

Network speeding up

I'm switching the connection over to a new, shiny 10X faster network
because of all the load. There might be bits of downtime as your boxes
learn new addresses and things. Should be brief. Let me know of any
prolonged outages you see.

Preditors & Editors Changeover

With the very sad passing of Dave Kuzminski, who ran P&E, I've taken over the P&E duties. Lots of what I hope are improvements; check it out at
pred-ed.com.

Critters Server is Dying has been Replaced

See important details
here in my blog.Let me know
if you find anything that isn't working right. (Manuscripts are now available
for this week, FYI.)

Book Recommendation

Announcing ReAnimus Press

If you need help making ebooks from manuscripts or print copies—or finding great stuff to read—look no further! An ebook publisher
started by your very own Critter Captain. (And with a
12% Affiliate program.)
[More]

~~~

FEATURED BOOK

~~~

Sample Critiques

These are actual critiques from many moons ago. (We've got a lot more
members now. :-)

What's it like to run a story throught Critters?
It's like running your child through the gauntlet -- whatever blemishes
it has will be revealed.
Each story submitted to Critters is available to all the members to review
(350 of them, as of 2/1/98). Manuscripts are sent out in batches each
Wednesday, with critiques due a week later. I send out approximately
one ms. per week per 15 members, which results in each ms. receiving
15-25 critiques (though some have had as many as 40; shorter ones tend to
get more). Most are thorough -- not simply "I liked it" or "I hated it,"
but why and possibly with suggestions on how to improve it. Some examples
are below. Critiques run about 800 words on average (by that logic,
each submission gets on the order of 17,000 words of critique).
Of course, you won't agree with every comment, though if you hear the
same thing several times -- think hard about it.
Most members are themselves writers, and find the process of
reviewing is itself helpful to their own writing. Many members
are scientists and comment on technical accuracy. Some members are
long-time readers of SF/F/H and know what's been done before;
and we have at least one web-zine editor. In any event, the stringent
participation requirements do their job, ensuring both quantity and
quality of comments.
To give you an idea of the kind of information a critique can give
you, here are three sample critiques of one member's story (entitled,
"The Duplicate War: A Review"). Most people divide their comments into
two types, "global" and "local" (macro/micro, nats/nits, -- overall
thoughts, characterization, underlying idea, dialogue, storytelling, vs.
typos, logic errors, grammar problems, confusing sentences, etc.), though
some just write up their thoughts in prose. (Several articles on how to
critique are on the 'resources' page.)
Sample #1 ============================================================
Critique of: The Duplicate War: A Review
by David Lowe
By Riley
I enjoyed reading this story but did find the reading a challenge.
The structure of an opera review with historical notes is very creative
but is quite complex. It also limits dialog and I find reading
stories without dialog more like reading essays, which is not as much
fun.
I had trouble with the scientific explanation. The story simply stops
in the middle and gives a short explanation. This stopped the story
but did not provide not enough information for me to buy on. A longer
explanation would have certainly brought the story to a screaming halt.
The aerospace economy reference also did not ring true for me. I work
for NASA and face it every day. The entire NASA budget is just a drop
in the budget and a political football. If it were canceled
completely it would have little effect on the American aerospace
economy. The military space program is much bigger (but largely
secret) and it is a small part of the total military aerospace effect.
The rolla-coaster effects have to do with military budgets and little
to do with NASA.
I also had difficulty with the ending. I seems to me that there would
be thousands of duplicators left laying around. Surely other
sociopaths would continue to use them for disruptive purposes.
Perhaps some special weapon to search out and destroy the duplicators
would solve the problem.
In the long term I would think that duplicates would have serious
health problems. They simply constitute a enormous breading ground
for disease agents and they all have exactly the same immune system.
I think there would very quickly develop a Scott plaque. I do not see
how they could last long enough to explore the stars.
Sorry to be so negative. I hope these obliterations help you to get
your story published.
Riley
Sample #2 ============================================================
David,
The most valuable portion of any critique is "what I didn't like and why".
Unfortunately, (for the critic) there's not much wrong with The Duplicate
War: A Review. I will try to be as specific as possible with my praise so
you'll know what you did right.
The vehicle of an opera review to tell your tale is an excellent one. I
have seen this approach before and it is very effective as long as it keeps
moving. Your tale moved at a brisk (but not rushed) pace.
>>The photograph of his father in the wheelchair that had brought him back
from Vietnam could be dusted... The paragraph this line appears in is an
excellent example of characterization by setting and the line I referenced
is the wonderful little detail which completes the scene and sheds a little
light on who Scott is.
>>The networks showed the tape over and over; he sat up drinking strong
coffee and watched Michael every hour until dawn. I think that ammending
this line to end "...and watched Michael die every hour until dawn" will add
impact and help justify Scott's actions later.
>>Scott studied the portable duplicator in puzzlement; it was an apparently
simple device that in its contracted state IT could have fit into a woman's
pocketbook. If you read this sentence without the capitalized IT, I believe
you will agree that the word IT should be deleted.
>>When Bulgin awoke in total darkness, he sat up...
This paragraph uses incorrect science. SF can use imaginary science but it
cannot use incorrect science. There are two types of night vision devices
available, light amplification and thermal sensing. Thermal sensing devices
show heat gradients and will readily show outlines of people and objects
(most objects in a room are not at the exact same temperature) but are not
sensitive enough to show details such as which keys Bulgin pressed. Light
amplification devices will show such details but require some light
(advanced models work quite well on even very dark nights) to amplify. A
small closet in a basement at night (total darkness, you say) will not
provide enough light.
>>Sooner than we deserved, the curtain rose on a new day. The opera critic
is a harsh one! His comments were a wonderful bonus to the story and this
line was his best.
>>They even duplicated tanks. This line is not needed and worse, it doesn't
work. How did they accomplish this? No tanks that I have ever seen (or
imagined in futeristic stories) would fit into a one cubic meter space.
This is an excellent story and should see publication. It is on par with
what I see in the short SF markets. Good luck.
Robert Keating
Sample #3 ============================================================
David
Please forgive all punctiation and spelling mistakes in advance.
THE MACRO
Extremely well written. You've obviously written before, as I see from your
bio. Your images are accurate, descriptions believable and real. No
misplaced modifiers, no said bookisms, etc. I enjoyed reading it. Inventive,
original, good pace, neat idea for telling a story.
My only question at the end was Where did Bulgin get the duplicator? Your
reference to the keypad makes me think he built it, but how?
This story takes place in 97, pretty near future. Maybe put it a bit further
ahead?
I was unclear a few times as to when he'd switched frm his review to a
re-telling of actual events. Maybe clearer transitions to flashbacks. PLace
the opera in the obvious present, be clearer with your re-telling of past
events. I think that what makes it unclear is that you have a passage where
you drop into Scott's POV (starts with 'Scott gave the signal abnd his men
burst into the little room...') while the rest of the manuscript is the
reviewer's POV
My physics is rusty, I would imagine that's true for most people. Might want
to find a way to slip in a more #layman's# explanation of the Conservation
of Energy and how the duplicator works. I know you put a little bite in
there about how the duplicator works, (wormholes and such) but I didn't
really understand it. Go into it, come out the tail, and you're twinned, but
why emerge in our universe? Wouldn't you be stuck in the alternate? Maybe a
rewrite for us thick headed ones.
THE MICRO
'...a mirror-surfaced 10 centimeter cube with what once had been a
calculator keypad embedded in its upper surface.'
take out 'what once had been a calculator' so it's 'with a keypad imbedded'
You mention the keypad bit later and do a better job of describing it at
that point
'Scott was the little brother, not the younger brother;'
Take out the second brother. "Scott was the little brother, not the
younger;"
Ref para that starts 'For a crew of school teachers, autoworkers, and
computer jocks...'
I'm in the Air Force, and no one really saw combat experience in the gulf.
Only people who really gained combat experience were the pilots, and even
then it was tactical bombing experience, not head to head dogfighting. A few
Marine squads encountered fire clearing Kuwait city, but that's about it.
Most reservists served at home, keeping things running, although some did go
to the gulf. Most of those that did served in support positions, not combat.
Vietnam was the last small unit combat experience for the US, though Bosnia
is looking good. If you put it a bit more in the future, you might be able
to get away with making them Bosnia vets.
When Scott enters the code, the date backwards. He enters teh same date as
teh Bulgin from the day before. Does the code change each day? Would it be
the date of the present day?
THE CONCLUSION
Good story, good writing, original way of telling it. It was a pleasure to
read. Suggest Analog 1st, then maybe Science Fiction Age (though they're a
bit more soft/social SF) then Asmov's or Aboriginal. Expanse maybe (see SF
Age note). Century too.
Good luck!
For what it's worth
Dave